Happiness and economic well-being

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Hmm, been a long time so can't think of a good topic too start with. Well, the economy would be a good one perhaps since everyone is predicting a gloomy year ahead with talks of recession and all. Read Yes, the effects of the financial crisis could be felt as far away as here where i lived. Business where i worked had dropped sharply perhaps because of the uncertainty and lower demand expectation. Everyone is expecting a slower growth or even worse, no-growth or stagnation. Year-end bonus has been withdrawn and every employees are not too happy about it. Lay-offs are certain to happen for those working in large corporations and multinationals here. It's all looking very gloomy actually. A sign of failure of the western economic system or just a cyclical run of the economy as described by Keynesian economics? But is the gloom actually media generated or is it real? The important question-is everyone feeling unhappy because of the coming or 'already-here' recession? Some says the poor are happier if only because they don't have as many physical 'wants' as those who are rich. Physical and material wealth does make us hungry for more and this does not really makes one happy, they argued. Natives in most countries "measure wealth in terms of how many friends one has". As long as their basic needs are satisfied, they're quite happy living in their world. Of course no one would be happy if one were suffering in situations of extreme poverty. Then there is the point that humans measure happiness in relation to "social comparison or relative standing". It means that if everyone around us is in an equally 'unhappy' state, then we would still feel generally quite happy. So that even though the news around us are all bad, we're still happy in our daily lives; we still have our family, our wives still look pretty to us, our pets still look cute to us, and so on. Perhaps the media and governments are trying to make us feel unhappy just so we can spend/consume more to revive the economy, and if you proclaim yourself to be happy, then everyone would say you're being irrational or ridiculous in times like this. On another note, if the recession affects our abilities to pay our bills and mortgages then we will become very unhappy. For those who had lost a job or in need of medical attention, then it is an unfortunate situation. For those who have children, there's also their education to think about not to mention healthcare. There's a truth that in times of economic uncertainty, most of the time the government can't really help its citizens. So, the best action is to prepare yourself for any eventuality by saving for an emergency fund when times are good. Maybe the full impact of the recession has not hit us yet. Or maybe it won't be as bad as all the economists and bankers said it is. Or maybe we can use these time to get to know more people and become friends with them. That could only be a good thing right?